London days out | THE INSTAGRAM HUSBAND

2 February 2018

god help me if i'm not the most boring human on the planet these days. i rarely go out, and when i do it's not too far from my bed, making maintaining a blog quite a hard feat - with nothing other than criminal minds, vegan curry, and my trainer's innermost secrets to talk about, it makes things quite hard. and, while i could just not write anything at all, i like blogging. that's why i blog, really. i like sharing pictures from my life, edited to perfection, matched carefully with words pulled out of my brain. it's cathartic. even if i'm not writing about anything, it's the act of just doing it that make me happy; keeps my brain active, keeps the "creativity" flowing. all that good stuff.

but, it's hard. i don't have a partner in crime - someone to take silly candid pictures of me to go on this here blog, next to my carefully crafted words, in my curated online version of me - other than my incredible friends, obviously. but just like me, my incredible friends can't always be persuaded out of their houses on those grey london days. or they double book me, or sometimes, they just plain don't want to come out and play, and all of those things are totally fine. but, finding people you feel comfortable flouncing around on the streets of london with isn't easy. enter: the instagram husband.

i've known james "online" for a while now, but only met in real life once before. about a year ago, actually, at an event i was hosting for work. he writes a blog, too, as well as contributing to lucie loves - how i found him, really, and he's one of those charatcters that you meet (and smell) once, and know you will meet again. we've been meaning to get together for coffee and catch ups for a while now, and so when the opportunity came up to finally do just that last sunday, we both ditched any doubts we might have had about leaving the house, dolled ourselves right up, and hit the streets of east london to essentially: take a lot of photos of each other.

not in a weird way, obvs, but in a "get the shot for the 'gram" sort of way. one of the best things this blogging lark has brought to me is people who just get it. who don't question your need for photos with coat on, coat off, left side, right side - no, left side again, should i walk toward you? what do i do with my hand, here? and who are just super comfortable being behind the camera while saying things like "point your leg more to the left. more. a little more. not that far" before taking the shot, instead of taking your phone off you, taking a wonky, blurry pic and handing your phone back. someone who insists on using their camera and shooting in raw is the kind of friend i want to have monthly catch ups with, for sure.

so, here's to the instagram husbands who know which angles are your best, tell you to stand up straight, laugh at you until you laugh with them (love that candid laugh), and offer taking "just one more?" picture before handing your camera back to you with 100 new photos on it. mostly of you.